Instax Mini 8 with Monochrome Film

My next offering over at 52 Rolls. This time experimenting with the new Fuji Instax Monochrome film, mostly indoors with flash. I quite the look even though the camera is very simple. I do discover some information that will help me make better photos with this camera.

Roll 41 and we are at week 48 for the year so that is reassuring, especially as I have 5 rolls scanned and ready to go. Except one of those rolls which the lab scanned through the plastic sleeve (if you can believe that).

You can see most of the pack, plus a few from an earlier colour pack at 52 Rolls, so click on the 52 Rolls link (here) .

Three months ago Fujifilm announced the release of Instax Mini Monochrome, a new instant film. It is important and wonderful that they are making new kinds of film, though the pleasure is much diminished by their discontinuation of several other film types in the past year or so.

This film is already easy to find in my area; in fact I found some on sale for a couple of dollars off, which is a good thing as it is quite pricey at CAN$13-$14/pack, or with tax, $1.50/shot. Even so, instant film is fun, especially with an almost 4-year old in tow. And, trying out different cameras and finding how to make the most of them is also a lot of fun – perhaps more so where the “most” is pretty hard to come by.

There are quite a few things I did not know in enough detail until I started…

Hi Mario – go into any camera store, or big box general supplies kind of store and you will find them hanging on the racks by the dozen – they are very popular. Though I am not of the right generation to understand their popularity. When I was taking these photos in a restaurant the server was all over the camera, saying how cool it was and so on.

The monochrome is a bit of an oddity, but given that Fuji recently discontinued making film for the older large sized Polaroid camera formats they must have some sense of the market or they would not be adding at the same time as subtracting. Also, they make the cameras, so like Polaroid of old control the whole thing. They do make larger Instax cameras/film as well, and some of them have more control and can make better images.

I guess if all you want is one print, and you get it right away, and taking a digital picture and then getting a print made costs about 1/3 as much, but takes time it can make sense. And there is the same old thrill as with polaroid of having a physical print appear before your very eyes, and those of your friends, which can then be passed around for laughs. It is strangely arcane in a digital era, but that is likely part of it too. And, if you want to, you can get the colour prints with various decorated borders, many of them suitably garish to distract from the rather soft picture quality.

If you want to see examples of what these cameras can do in the hands of a really good photographer, then check out Phil Kneen’s instax work: http://bit.ly/2gZp7Ee